Extraterrestrial intelligence and spiritual implications

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Riley259

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Just saw a program sponsored by National Geographic called “Extraterrestrials” and it ponders what life is like on other worlds, specifically a world called “the blue moon”. NASA scientists are interviewed and give detailed explanations and speculations about these intelligences. The one thing they are certain about is that all intelligences in the universe are ruled by a Darwinian form of evolution and a survival of the fittest mentality. These same scientists strongly believe that life is plentiful elsewhere because “star nurseries” where stars are born are full of the building blocks of life (amino acids). Surely God is the Author of all life but what implications do these speculations (and they’re just that when it comes right down to it) have on His relationship to other life forms and the notion that we are made in His image. There seems to imply an exclusivity in His relationship to us and the divine plan associated with that relationship. I would welcome come comments and insights.
 
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Riley259:
Just saw a program sponsored by National Geographic called “Extraterrestrials” and it ponders what life is like on other worlds, specifically a world called “the blue moon”. NASA scientists are interviewed and give detailed explanations and speculations about these intelligences. The one thing they are certain about is that all intelligences in the universe are ruled by a Darwinian form of evolution and a survival of the fittest mentality. These same scientists strongly believe that life is plentiful elsewhere because “star nurseries” where stars are born are full of the building blocks of life (amino acids). Surely God is the Author of all life but what implications do these speculations (and they’re just that when it comes right down to it) have on His relationship to other life forms and the notion that we are made in His image. There seems to imply an exclusivity in His relationship to us and the divine plan associated with that relationship. I would welcome come comments and insights.
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Did they discuss Fermi’s Paradox?

Fermi said, “If all these civilizations exist, where are they?”

If there are millions of advanced civilizartions in the universe, we surely cannot be the oldest, most advanced. We should be able to detect the communications of the older civilizations, who developed electro-magnetic communication before we did.

In the same vein, we’ve been using the electro-magnetic spectrum for about a hundred years now. Any civilization within 50 light years has had time to hear us and sent us a reply.

Yet, search as we may, we have yet to find a single message from any extra-terrestial civilization.
 
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Riley259:
There seems to imply an exclusivity in His relationship to us and the divine plan associated with that relationship.
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What specific biblical passages point to this? I agree that they’re there, but I think we can answer the question better if we have a concrete text to refer to.
 
Truth is truth. It does not change.

If today an alien civilization landed and started trade negotiations with us on a planetary scale, it would not change the truth contained within the church.
 
I don’t believe the Church has any teaching ruling out life on other planets. I would also say no one should be telling you that only an idiot would think we are alone. I was put off at the end of Contact when J. Foster’s character said if we are alone “it seems like a lot of wasted space”. She went through this whole ordeal about the difficulties between faith and science and it was like she didn’t learn a darn thing. :rolleyes:
 
The existance of extra-terrestial intelligence is a matter of science, not of faith. Science depends on facts – and there are as-yet none to demonstrate the existance of extra-terrestial intelligence.
 
vern humphrey:
The existance of extra-terrestial intelligence is a matter of science, not of faith. Science depends on facts – and there are as-yet none to demonstrate the existance of extra-terrestial intelligence.
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Whether there are facts to support *terrestrial * intelligence is still an open question. :cool:
 
These same scientists strongly believe that life is plentiful elsewhere because “star nurseries” where stars are born are full of the building blocks of life (amino acids).
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Even if true, that hardly means that all the conditions for those amino acids to become lifeforms is there, according to Darwinian theory, that is.

Our Earth is pretty unique. We are just the right size, just the right distance from our sun, which is just the right intensity, we have a large moon that keeps our revolution steady, large oceans and lots of vegetation to produce oxygen, and the list goes on.

The chances of other planets having all the favorable elements for higher intelligences to develop (once again using the Darwinian model) are astronomical not “plentiful” merely because of the number of stars, star nurseries, or galaxies in the universe.
 
Again, if they are out there, where are they?

Surely we can’t be the first (of the supposed millions) of civilizations to communicate in the electro-magnetic spectrum. If there are as many advanced civilizations as some believe, the airwaves ought to be filled with their chatter.

But they aren’t. Why not?
 
We have a relationship with God because we have souls; not because have intelligence.

What if these hypothetical aliens are intelligent animals?
 
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scriabin:
We have a relationship with God because we have souls; not because have intelligence.

What if these hypothetical aliens are intelligent animals?
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Even so, as Vern has pointed out, we ought to have heard their radio communications by now. Unless you mean intelligent like dolphins and elephants and apes? I suppose they wouldn’t be concerned with communicating as we do since they would have a purely naturalistic means of communication that wouldn’t necessitate the invention of radio. Still, they would probably have little use for us nor would they care to travel to other planets. Animals are content as they are–because they do not have immortal souls they are not restless in their world/environment/their own skin, as we are.
 
All of them assume that there must be intelligent life elsewhere then on earth, and they also assume that whatever intelligence there is must be superior.

What if all the right conditions (like earth) exist aplenty, but earth is the first to develop intelligent life?
 
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vz71:
All of them assume that there must be intelligent life elsewhere then on earth, and they also assume that whatever intelligence there is must be superior.

What if all the right conditions (like earth) exist aplenty, but earth is the first to develop intelligent life?
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That may be possible, but do you really think it probable? It’s much more probable that God created the Earth for us to inhabit, as it is, than to think we just developed here by chance, and that we are the first to be sentient.
 
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vz71:
All of them assume that there must be intelligent life elsewhere then on earth, and they also assume that whatever intelligence there is must be superior.

What if all the right conditions (like earth) exist aplenty, but earth is the first to develop intelligent life?
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Our sun is a second generation star on the outer fringes of the galaxy. That tells us there must be many olders stars – which observation confirms. We’re about average for age – so about half the stars in universe are older than us.
 
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Della:
That may be possible, but do you really think it probable? It’s much more probable that God created the Earth for us to inhabit, as it is, than to think we just developed here by chance, and that we are the first to be sentient.
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I agree that we are not by chance. God did create us.
Given the evidence that I see around me, I believe that God choice in process may be a little more involved then most.

And given this, I see no reason God could not conduct the same process elsewhere as well.
 
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vz71:
I agree that we are not by chance. God did create us.
Given the evidence that I see around me, I believe that God choice in process may be a little more involved then most.

And given this, I see no reason God could not conduct the same process elsewhere as well.
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Of course, God can do anything he likes, but once again is it probable? We know that Christ was “crucified from the foundation of the earth,” so it was always a part of God’s plan for the human race to be redeemed. That being the case, is it probable that God would want to do that again, over and over, elsewhere? For any sentient creatures with eternal souls would have to stand the test, as human beings did, but fell. I can’t think other races of sentient beings would do any better. But apart from all this, Christ became a human being, and that step was irrevocable. He isn’t going to become some other sentient creature now. If any come after us, they would have to be us in order for them to be a part of the life of the Trinity, and why would God recreate us on other planets when we are already here?
 
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vz71:
I agree that we are not by chance. God did create us.
Given the evidence that I see around me, I believe that God choice in process may be a little more involved then most.

And given this, I see no reason God could not conduct the same process elsewhere as well.
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It’s one thing to say God could conduct the same process, another thing entirely to say God did conduct the same process elsewhere.

We have absolutely no evidence of the latter. As I (and Fermi) ask, if there are other civilizations, where are they?
 
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Della:
Of course, God can do anything he likes, but once again is it probable?
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Sure it is. Why wouldn’t he?
My apologies, that sounds flippant.
What I mean is that given all of the random events that needed to happen just to create me, I have a hard time considering a decision of God’s to be dictated by probability.
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Della:
We know that Christ was “crucified from the foundation of the earth,” so it was always a part of God’s plan for the human race to be redeemed. That being the case, is it probable that God would want to do that again, over and over, elsewhere?
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To redeem one of his children, I cannot see a limit to what God would do.
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Della:
For any sentient creatures with eternal souls would have to stand the test, as human beings did, but fell. I can’t think other races of sentient beings would do any better.
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Given two choices to be made, I could readily imagine half making the right choice. Just basic laws of probability.
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Della:
But apart from all this, Christ became a human being, and that step was irrevocable. He isn’t going to become some other sentient creature now.
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Would he have to?
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Della:
If any come after us, they would have to be us in order for them to be a part of the life of the Trinity, and why would God recreate us on other planets when we are already here?
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Why would they have to be ‘us?’

Of course looking at this as a pessimist, wouldn’t it be interesting if we are one of many thousands, and that we are the only ones that chose wrong.
 
vern humphrey:
It’s one thing to say God could conduct the same process, another thing entirely to say God did conduct the same process elsewhere.

We have absolutely no evidence of the latter. As I (and Fermi) ask, if there are other civilizations, where are they?
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A very good point.
Which is why I said God could; not God did.
 
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